sacha chua living an awesome life

Monday: I don’t do “relaxing holidays” very well. My idea of a perfect holiday is one where I’m all wrung out at the end and ready to go back to work. Building a chair. Bottling a gazillion jars of jam. Taking apart and rebuilding appliances. Hanging out with family and friends. (If you’ve met them, you know what a whirlwind they can be.)

This New Year’s holiday must have been the quietest holiday I’ve had in a while. It’s weird! I’m half-dreading the abrupt change in pace when I get back to work tomorrow, particularly as I’ve managed to commit myself to some rather high-intensity days coming up.

(Fortunately, the world works in mysterious ways. It could have been crazier, but it isn’t.)

It’s hard to write about anything other than being sick when you’re sick.

Actually, this is not true. I snuck in some work this afternoon and I made a lot of progress writing a developer’s guide for the system we’re building. It’s hard for me to write about life or productivity or connecting at conferences when my nose is stuffed, but I can talk about node access records and workflow transitions, no problem.

Maybe that’s what I should do next time I’m sick and feeling lethargic. Never mind the mid-day naps. A good round of coding or documenting is a great antidote for the doldrums.

Being sick is great for all sorts of realizations, actually. I have the free time to do whatever I want to do (within reason). I don’t have the energy or the inclination to do many things. Granted, a lot of that is because of the cold, but if I don’t get around to doing something even though I have an unencumbered day, what are the chances of my getting around to it with an extra half hour?

Here’s what I’m learning:

Writing and coding boost my energy, and are a great way to cheer myself up if I’m feeling unproductive.

Playing the piano is fun, too. I’m slowly getting back into it (compensating for the time I couldn’t speak?). I like the slow development of fluency. Plus, my playing nudges J-, and she ends up teaching herself a bit too. I’ve been teaching myself Schumann’s “Von fremden Ländern und Menschen” (the easy version from http://www.free-scores.com/download-sheet-music.php?pdf=8153) because of its appearance in McDull, but it’s also a pleasure re-encountering old friends like Für Elise.

Drawing and preparing for presentations are pretty low on my radar. I should think about how to tweak that. Fortunately, I’d written a number of blog posts from when I was presenting more, so I can remember what it’s like.

Sewing has a bit more of an activation cost than it could. When work settles down again, I’ll set aside some time to see if I can fix this.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I still have a bit of a cough and some sniffles, and I’ll probably work from home, but my voice is back and I can focus on work. (More easily on work than on other things, even.)

Between moving my cat 13,000km and finalizing my permanent residency, that was the most stressed out flight I’d ever taken.

It’s four days after the flight and I’m still tired. A nasty cold snuck in while my immune system was weak, I guess. W- has been taking good care of me.

I’ve got some errands to do today (dentist appointment, health card registration, social insurance number renewal), and then I think I’ll go to bed.

Wednesday was an interesting time for me. I am deeply, deeply grateful
to Leigh Honeywell and Jed Smith, who took me to the hospital and
stayed with me. Here’s what happened:

I fell while trying to get off my bike. I must’ve slipped or misjudged
the height because this was my first time to ride it wearing black
school schoes instead of hiking shoes. Fortunately, I was near
Graduate House when this happened, and I limped to my room to pick up
something I’d forgotten.

I headed back down and decided to brave the bike again so that I could
go to the bank. After a block of much pain, I decided that biking was
probably not the best way to travel. I headed back, found out that I
was bleeding, and did my best to deal with it. It wouldn’t stop,
though.

I texted Jed to tell him that I couldn’t make it to samba because of
the bike accident. I also told a couple of friends who biked, just in
case they had any advice. One of those was Leigh, who turned out to be
on campus taking a class on Java exceptions. Upon hearing of my
distress, she left the class and headed to Graduate House in order to
help me get to the hospital.

I left out the specifics of the accident because it was a rather
embarrassing thing, but Jed insisted that I keep him updated. I told
him that Leigh was taking me to the hospital and that everything would
be fine. We took a cab to Western, and Jed met us there after a short
while.

The Canadian medical system is good, but the lack of doctors makes
things a bit slow. That said, I was glad that I didn’t have anything
serious enough to make the triage nurse increase my priority. Having
company certainly helped pass the time. =)

The examination was a bit brutal, though. I cried and hyperventilated
from the pain, losing a contact lens in the process. They gave me a
painkiller afterwards. (Hmm, might have been a better idea to do the
painkiller before the examination…)

The resident doctor told me that it was a routine injury and nothing
to worry about, although he referred me to a Mount Sinai Hospital so
that a specialist could make sure that everything was all right. The
doctor told me that the next few days would be rather painful, though,
so I texted Quinn Fung, asking her to e-mail all the people I had on
my schedule.

We took a cab to Mount Sinai and waited for a few hours. The
painkiller helped, and the company of friends made it easy for me to
pass the time.

I got admitted to the emergency room at around midnight. I talked to
one of the ER staff about what happened, and then I dozed on and off
while waiting for the specialist. I woke up when Jed came in. He said
that Leigh had to leave already (it was way past midnight then!), and
he also brought some food. I didn’t have much appetite, though.

The specialist came at around 3:00. The preliminary exam was still too
painful for me, so they stuck an IV into me and gave me a stronger
painkiller. It made me drowsy, and when I woke up again they had
finished with everything and reassured me that nothing needed
stitching or patching up. Jed stepped out when they did the
examination, but remembered the instructions that the ER staff gave
him. That was good as I couldn’t remember the examination at all.

So that’s my first experience of the Canadian medical system. I’m
really, really glad that friends were there to help me navigate the
system and to hold my hand throughout the process. Big shout out goes
to Leigh and Jed, who saw me at my worst and stuck around anyway… =)

On Technorati: friends, sick

Random Japanese sentence: 私が出掛けている間、猫の面倒をみてください。 Please look after my cats while I’m away.

I threw up last night almost six hours after I ate bacon and eggs from
a restaurant. Weird that the only time I got a severse adverse
reaction to food here, it wasn’t even my fault. I was very weak, but
fortunately I had my cellphone with me, so I managed to call up my mom
for advice and one of my friends for help. It was all I could do to
grab a mug of water, open one of those wonderful air-activated heating
pads, and stagger into bed.

I would’ve asked Mariana for help, but she was studying, so I called
the only person I could think of who’d probably be awake and ready to
help. Deep gratitude goes out to Mike Tsang, who brought biscuits and
prepared some sugarwater for me. That really helped me recover, and I
went to sleep rehydrated.

I had a heavy lunch that day, so I think the suddenly high calorie
intake upset my system. I’m so very glad I have friends, though.

On Technorati: friends, sick

Random Japanese sentence: その子はねこの尻尾を掴まえた。 The boy caught the cat by the tail. Sono ko wa neko no shippo o tsukamaeta.

Not enough sleep and not enough water and certain other factors that
occur on a semi-regular basis meant I was really, really drained
today. I pushed myself a bit hard for lunch, heading out to an
Ethiopian restaurant with Mike Tsang, his brother David, and their
friend Nashira (sp?). It was nice meeting them, though, and I had
interesting conversations over delicious food.

That meant I skipped the lunch nap I was thinking of having, though. A
high-priority issue came up afterwards, so I didn’t get much of an
afternoon nap, either. By the time I finally got to nap, it was almost
Toastmasters time. I called Paul to say I couldn’t make it. I hope he
passed the message to Ari.

I wasn’t in the mood to cook or even to reheat pizza, but Calum
happened to be in the area (he had a thesis meeting with Mark), so he
showed me where I could get a nice, healthy soup. It was a bit of a
walk, but the nap had left me a little bit better, and I drank plenty
of water while I was there.

I felt better after the meal, although still a little out of sorts. I
felt good enough to practice some Renaissance dance. I also stayed up
talking to Clair and Charo, formulating a battle plan.

All I can say is: thank goodness for portable heating packs, or I’d
probably have been totally out of it for the whole day.

On Technorati: sick

Random Japanese sentence: 実はわたしの猫ははずかしがりやなのです。 The fact is that my cat is shy.

ネコは身動きひとつしなかった。 The cat didn’t move a muscle.

This cat nearly didn’t, either. I stayed in bed almost all day, still
nursing a sore throat. Still sick. My dad and I had arroz caldo. What
a wonderful comfort food… (No, my dad isn’t sick. Just me.)

Tomorrow the ACM people want me to train with them. I’ve been looking
forward to it too, although I’ve been a little nervous due to certain
personal reasons. My mom said something along the lines of quitting
while I was ahead, but it isn’t that, really. Oh well. I’ll pick up
some of my toys, at least. Besides, I don’t have a reliable way of
getting in touch with them, and I’d hate to make them wait at Faura.

I should also work on the Adphoto systems. Eventually. Maybe the
equipment thing. I don’t know… The Bluepoint thing isn’t much, but
at least it’s well-defined; I know when I’m successful. And I’ll get
paid for it too, which might be nice for starting a small business or
whatnot.

Gah. I need to think.

On Technorati: sick

I still have a hard time swallowing, and I’m somewhat warmer than
normal. Oh well. Also feel very—no, not quite sleepy, but I do want
to vegetate.

In other news, I had a lot of fun playing taiko at the arcades. I’ve
gotten much better at it since my retun,. I can easily clear simple
songs and have even cleared the medium version of the 5th symphony.
(Don’t ask me what the 5th symphony is doing there, but it’s lots of
fun.)

Watched Miss Congeniality 2 today.

Oh, wore the funky pants Kathy gave me. Also wore the pretty zori I
brought home from Japan.

Much fun.

Still sick, though.

どのねこも、どのねこもひとくちずつ草を食べました。すると野原中の草はすっ
かりなくなってしまいました。 Each cat ate a mouthful of grass and not
a blade was left!

On Technorati: sick